Jung’s insights on ethics in business and work organisations: examining the ‘moral nature of present-day man’

ABSTRACT

Business can be likened to an institution of archetypal stature, influencing not only how work organisations are managed but also what society values both socio-economically and morally. As such, it also carries a significant shadow that pervades the psyche of individual agents. The significance of this collective shadow raises important moral questions usually discussed under the term ‘business ethics’; however, too little attention is given to the unconscious influences that underlie most moral conflicts in business and within the context of work organisations. Jung’s insights into the moral dimension of the psyche and the ethical value of individuation have much relevance to a better understanding of the various types of moral tension in business and at work. In particular, Jung’s comprehension of the inherent moral struggle between the individual and the collective is discussed, and its value for reviewing the state of ethics in business is explained.

KEYWORDS:

• Business ethics
• collective psyche
• conscience
• individuation
• morality
• work organisations

Acknowledgments

I thank Mary Brown as well as the editors for their suggestions and encouragements.

Note on contributor

Cécile Rozuel currently works as a lecturer at Lancaster University Management School (UK). Her research primarily focuses on analysing moral issues in organisations through understanding the conscious and unconscious factors that influence individual and collective behaviour. She is also interested in the role of imagination in business ethics education and organisational practice, and has published several papers on these topics.

Notes

1. Zweig and Abrams (1991, p. xx) poignantly depict the collective shadow as follows: ‘The collective shadow – human evil – is staring back at us virtually everywhere: It shouts from newsstand headlines; it wanders our streets, sleeping in doorways, homeless; it squats in X-rated neon-lit shops on the peripheries of our cities; it embezzles our monies from the local savings and loan; it corrupts power-hungry politicians and perverts our systems of justice; it drives invading armies through dense jungles and across desert sands; it sells arms to mad dealers and gives the profits to reactionary insurgents; it pours pollution through hidden pipes into our rivers and oceans, and poisons food with invisible pesticides. [… ] This may help explain why we are riveted to violent news stories of warmongers and religious fanatics. Repelled yet drawn to the violence and chaos of our world, in our minds we turn these others into the containers of evil, the enemies of civilization’.